Aderholt to DHS: No plane for you

Fed up with waiting for reports due Congress, the Alabama Republican is hitting the Department of Homeland Security where it lives: withholding hundreds of millions from headquarters accounts and even threatening access to the Coast Guard Gulfstream that carries top officials about.

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It helps to be chairman of the House Appropriations panel charged with writing the department’s budget. But Aderholt is breaking new ground, turning his 98-page, $39.1 billion budget bill into a small textbook in how to put more punch in the power of the purse.

Having been stood up this year, he’s essentially set out to use his control of 2013 funding — beginning Oct. 1 — to make sure it doesn’t happen again when the 2014 budget rolls out next February.

Altogether, an estimated $1.1 billion is conditioned on the delivery of reports — and if things don’t improve, forget the plane.

Exceptions are allowed for oil spills and medical emergencies, for example. But the legislative text, released Tuesday, is very specific about what will occur if the reports aren’t in: “The Secretary and the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security and the Commandant and Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard may not travel aboard any Coast Guard owned or operated fixed-wing aircraft after the date of the President’s budget request for fiscal 2014.”

Who knew?

“The bottom line is, they not only should enforce the law but also comply with the law,” Aderholt told POLITICO. “The request that we’re making is not something that we shouldn’t have access to. It should be information they have to operate on a day to day basis. This is not some unusual request.”

“We felt like this will send a clear message. It hopefully does get attention. There is a lot of frustration, it has been building. They say the information is coming but we haven’t seen it.”

Indeed, there’s considerable sympathy among Democrats, frustrated as well by what they say is Homeland’s lax record of providing data needed by Congress in writing its annual spending bills. So motive is not the issue—it’s more the methods and degree.

“They are slow on the reports but these kinds of threatened withholdings are disproportionate,” said North Carolina Rep. David Price, who serves alongside Aderholt as the ranking Democrat on the Homeland subcommittee. “This really cuts into their ability to do their job. It’s more than a bit. The bottom line is it’s excessive.”

The Coast Guard’s chief of media relations, Commander Christopher O’Neill said Tuesday night it was working with the administration to produce the requested capital investment plan report, Homeland Security asked for some patience given the numbers of reports the department is being asked for by Congress.

“Each year DHS spends thousands of hours utilizing hundreds of staff to produce an average of 320 Congressional reports within timeframes that are often dependent on the passage of the final appropriations bill, which often leaves little time to respond,” said spokesman Peter Boogaard. “The Department respects Congressional oversight and we are committed to meeting the reporting requirements and look forward to working with the Committee on this issue.”

Then again some reports are more equal than others — especially when requested by Appropriations.

“I’m happy to have people under estimate me,” Aderholt said. “Then I can take them by surprise.”